Dance Class

This is Amelia's Dance class. She has been dancing with most of them since she was 3 years old. I ran in to their class the other day to get a class photo for the slide show during recital...It turned out so cute I just had to post it to my blog that I have not posted anything to in over 6 months. Oh well, better late than never.

It rained and poured for 40 daysies daysies. "Girls Camp"

I have been to girls church camp many times in my life. This year happened to be the wettest I have ever experienced. It rained each and every day. On this particular day.. we woke to the most beautiful sunny day and we were all excited for the sun to come out. Well, we did see the sun for a few hours but then all of the sudden it was pouring buckets and buckets of water. Forget the ponchos, forget trying to stay clean and dry. This was a day for playing in the rain. Serious.... they tackled each other and the leaders and threw them in creek beds that were raging and swollen with water. I only escaped because I had a camera in my hands (under my poncho and tucked into a plastic bag ) I tried to snap some photos of the chaos but the rain was just to much even for a quick picture. I did get this picture just as the girls were coming back to the cabin to change their clothes and get dry. We all changed and sat on all the bunk beds and sang songs and danced until we were dry enough to venture out in the rain again. This time with umbrellas and ponchos. There is only so much wet a girl can take.

You only turn FORTY once!

I asked for it and boy did I get it. A few months ago as I was contemplating my impending end to my thirties I came up with a brilliant idea, I wanted to have a "40th" birthday bash. I thought back to all the parties I have had and realized that the last real birthday party I had had was when I was turning twelve years old. I had a big sleep over and was allowed to invite exactly 7 friends. My mom made up a big scavenger hunt that took us all over our neighborhood looking for crawdads, four leaf clovers and cow patties (all except the four leaf clover was readily available in our neighborhood).

At first I thought we might just make it a really big bash and include both Dave's and my 40th birthday and also our 20th Anniversary which is 4 days after my birthday, Dave's birthday is in December. He didn't want any part of "lime light" attention and so it was decided that we would celebrate my birthday only. We made up the invite list and decided we could invite 23 couples which included all my family, all of Dave's family and a few friends on top of that. We figured at least half of the invites would RSVP but much to our surprise we had all but 3 invites RSVP to tell us they would be attending. I was happily surprised that so many people could make time in their busy schedules to hang out with me for an evening. To say the least I felt loved.

Dave and I had a blast planning and preparing for the party. We needed the party to be outside and we hemmed and hawed about when we should have the party, since my birthday happens to fall right smack dab in the middle of "monsoon season" here in Arizona we were leery to have it in August. We decided to take our chances and planned the party in our back yard on my actual birthday which is August 7th. Dave put up pretty bulb lights and we added some lanterns and had a giant table lined up under the lights. We went with an Italian theme as Dave and I have always wanted to travel there and we love the food and music. The girls and I prepared most of the food the day before and the cakes and salad the day of the party. We made a tasty dinner of Italian bread and oil, salad, meatballs and spaghetti and I made these cute little yummy lemon and chocolate torte cakes. I had a blast making the food. Dave worked the kitchen for most of the party (he feels more comfortable working then being a host).

For entertainment I had my daughter Ammah play a song by Taylor swift called "Best Day" which is about a mother and daughter and I hired a professional singer to play more songs for us as well as play a song for me to sing to Dave. Since it was our anniversary a few days later I dedicated "The Way I Am", to Dave.

The weather had promised to rain that evening but the skies were clear all day and we thought we might be in the clear, unfortunately it did rain toward the end and we did get a little wet and moved the party to the porch and inside of the house but all in all we had a blast, most of the guest didn't even mind the rain and several of them ran around the back yard in it.

Dave and I had so much fun planning and preparing together. I think..... that all that planning was probably the best part of the whole thing. We spent hours looking at lighting and tables scapes and shopping at Home Depot and making table center pieces.. even the girls got into all the planning and prep work. They even served our guest and helped in the kitchen. Poor Amelia went up to her room before the party was even over as she became super tired from all her hard work at the party. It was definitely a family project.

My friend Scarlett took these pictures at the party and put them together in this fun little video. The back ground music is my daughter Ammah singing the song I requested from her. It was recorded by some friends of ours. Isn't she awesome. I am so proud of her.

*** You will want to scroll to the bottom of the blog and hit the pause button on the music box so you can hear Ammah sing her song.

Our Twentieth Anniversary

David and I celebrated our 20th anniversary on Wednesday night. We didn't have big plans but the night felt magical anyway. We started off with dinner at Chilli's, a movie and then home for a little dessert that I had prepared. I placed a plate before Dave and asked him to figure out what everything represented. Gummy Bears from our first date to see Cats at Gammage, chocolate covered strawberries from our honeymoon night and macadamia clusters from our honeymoon vacation in Hawaii. He had a little treat for me too as he brought out two cans of cherry 7Up, the drink we served at our reception. How sweet that he even found "diet 7Up" for me since I am still on my "no sugar" kick. We had a great time reminiscing and sharing fun cards with each other. I know it wasn't much for such a big anniversary but it felt just right for some reason.

Dave came home with 2 dozen pink roses for me. I advised he should have only bought 20, one for each year we were married. He advised the other 4 were for good luck. :o)

We shared a yummy dinner of steak and shrimp. It was the best steak I've had in years. We had such a great dinner talking about the past 20 years and all that we have done, accomplished and also what lies a head for us.

I can honestly say that our marriage has not been all "peaches n cream", we have had a few moments, months and even a few years that have been a little difficult, but in the end, I find much joy in our relationship. Dave is my best friend and has always been. I love him with all my heart and plan on sharing soooo many more years in matrimonial bliss with him. Happy Anniversary Babe.. I LOVE YOU.

Freshman , Five and Phlebotomy

Andelyn is now a high school student and Amelia is entering 5th grade. Sorry no pictures of Ammah but she did start her phlebotomy school last month, I'll see if I can catch her in her scrubs one day.

August 11th was all a buzz in our house as the girls were putting on their fresh new school clothes and checking to make sure their hair was just right. Amelia rides the bus to and from school this year and we are so close to Andy's school that she just walks. Yeah..... for the 1st time in 14 years I do not have to take a kid to school or pick them up. Seriously! Do you know how awesome that is??? Do you? Well, unless you have done as much pick up and drop off as I have done over the years you may not understand my giddiness, for those of you who know the route so well you can do it blindfolded and in your sleep...you are gettin me right now.

Just wanted to share a few pics of my girls first day outfits. I loved the shoes this year and had to get a few close ups.

I love fresh new school clothes. Brings back tons of memories of my own first days of school. So exciting it always was meeting your new teacher and seeing all your friends after a long summer break.

Ammah, Andelyn and Amelia - God bless you in your school days this year. Do your best and return with honor.

Have You Ever??

Have you ever swam in a pool of chocolate milk? Well we haven't either but... Gila Box in Safford is probably going to be the closest we ever get to swimming in chocolate milk. "Gustav, save some room for later". No we did not taste it. Well. I guess I can't actually say that I didn't taste it because for some reason I couldn't keep my mouth shut while we were having a huge mud fight. I'm talking filthy, completely covered, mud in places you really don't wanna have mud kinda mud fight. I convinced my good friend Rebecca that we really should have a mud fight, because when else would we get the chance and our kids would never forget it. So..... I casually picked up a gigantic wad of slimy mud and pretended to be looking at something in the mud, as the kids came closer I let em have it and ooooh the fight was on. I think Amelia got the worst of it but she didn't really care because in the end she and Lilly were wallowing in it like little piggies.

The girls and I like to visit my long time friend Rebecca and her family in Safford every year. It's one of the highlights of our year. This year we visited during July 24th Pioneer Day Celebration. There were cookouts, BB Q's, swim parties, fireworks, a parade and we even squished in a few hours of baptisms at the new Temple. The Evans Family was in charge of a branch float this year during the parade and asked if Andelyn and Amelia would like to join in the fun. Scott and Rebecca were "Root Beer" floats and the kids ran around dressed all in brown and handed out root beer candies to all the parade goers.

Havasupai Falls

I would love to say that I was lucky enough to be part of this awesome trip Andelyn was privileged enough to go on but alas my expertise in hiking and rock climbing was not needed :OP This is the trip the youth in our ward were able to make for Youth Conference this year. It was entitled "Journey to the Promise Land". Fitting for sure. Andelyn said it was the prettiest place she had ever seen with her own eyes. They hiked down into the canyon at Midnight, 12 miles down and stayed at camp for two days. They hiked back out on the 3rd day in the middle of the night as well. They all wore head lamps to light the way. It's just to hot to hike during the day so hiking in the dark is almost a necessity. Andelyn loved everything about it except the two giant blisters she had on the back of her heels. Apparently she had the least of the blisters and I think she actually got off a lot better than some of the other hikers. Several of her leaders told me that Andelyn was an amazing hiker. She was one of the first to hike out to the top beating out all but 1 other boy in her group.

Hmmmm - can you guess what time it is?

Yup, you guessed it. Or if you didn't guess it. It's recital time. Interestingly enough, for some reason I didn't get any pictures of Andelyn in her costumes. Yes, we bought a few from the stage photography but I didn't really get any snap shots of her this year. I happened to be at the studio the day Amelia had most of her pictures so I snapped a few outside. These 4 little girls are the best of friends in dance class. They actually spend about 5 hours a week with each other dancing and so it's no surprise that they are such good friends. They belong to a Company group that has been together since they were 6 and this years recital was their 4th year to dance together.

What a beautiful ballerina pose from my sweet little Amelia. She loves all her classes and absolutely adores dance. Both Amelia and Andelyn take tap, jazz, ballet, contemporary and hip hop.

Long Time, No Entry

Okay, I have to admit that I don't actually like the way this blog site works. I have been having a hard time getting my pictures and text to go where I want them to go and I usually just end up giving up. Especially if I have a lot to put on one post and I have to figure out what happened in backwards order. Maybe I am lame and not getting the way posts should work but I find that I am having a hard time. Alas, all my excuses aside I decided I would just post a few pics and right a tad bit for each one no matter what today. So here goes. May the pictures fall where they may.

My sweet little baby girl turned 10 on the last day of February and we decided to have a little friends party. Amelia invited 5 little girls over and they played games galore and ate a wholotta CANDY. The best game ended up being the most simple of them all. We blew up a beach ball and I wrote silly questions all over the ball. The girls threw the ball around and who ever caught the ball had to answer the question that their right thumb was closest too.

She also cut 12 inches off of her very long hair. I seriously cried as I cut but in the end it was pretty cut and Amelia loves it. That's all that really matters anyway.

SUGAR FREE

So.... I made myself a little itsy bitsy New Years resolution this year. I'm out to conquer sugar. Yup, no treats for a year. No cookies, no cake, no pie, no muffins, no soda pop, no candy, no chocolate, no jelly etc. Yes, sugar is in just about everything so I'm not going absolutely nuts with the sugar police. I still have a bowl of Cherrios or bread or ketchup, for heavens sake even oatmeal has 1 gram of sugar in it. It's been almost 2 months and I've only had one slip and that was a licked finger of jelly while making lunch one day for the girls. Ooops, old habits die hard. Anyway, just because I am riding on the insane train doesn't mean my family is following me down the same track. I decided to make myself bake the usual treats every week or so and sugar cookies during Valentines was no exception. I must confess that I did smell a few cookies several times but you've gotta give me some props for not licking a single frosted finger while decorating over 100 sugar cookies to the max. And when I say to the max I mean the MAX. We had chocolate and vanilla frosting, red hots, conversation hearts, m&m's, licorice and all manner of sprinkles. Cookies are my biggest weakness and sugar cookies with just a smidgen of frosting are my absolute favorite. I know it sounds nuts but I actually feel proud of myself for this commitment I have made. Now... whether this no sugar thing will affect the shape of my body I am doubtful since I have actually gained 2 lbs since I started. Go figure!

Family Photo Shoot

With all our busy schedules, especially Dave this year with School, work and finals. Our annual Christmas picture didn't happen until the 1st week in January. Oh well, better late than never. Thank you Scarlett for fitting us in at the last minute.

Top Ten Christmas List O9"

#10 - Listening to Christmas carols on the radio.
#9 - Our ward Christmas party and singing "The Prayer" with Bryce.
#8 - Putting up the tree and decorations while listening to Celine Dion's Christmas CD with my family.
#7 - Seeing Family and friends for parties and gatherings.
#6 - Opening Scarlett's presents.
#5 - Sleeping in!
#4 - All the cards and well wishes from family and friends.
#3 - Looking at my lit Christmas tree and candy lights at night. I love Christmas light ambiance.
#2 - Singing in "The Forgotten Carols" at Gammage Auditorium.

and drum roll......................................

My #1 most favorite thing from this Christmas Season.................................... Dave's graduation from radiography school! The best Christmas present this year!

My sleepy girls on Christmas morning. I love all 4 of you.

50 mm Baby!

I purchased a new lens for my camera today and I was so giddy I drove home and begged the girls to get ready and let me take a few pictures of them in Down Town Mesa. Andelyn was the only sweet child (therefore my "favorite child") to offer up her smiles. I love the technique I get with this lens. Soft out of focus back ground.I had a little learning curve since the lens does not have any zoom (I am the zoom I decided) and what fun I had.
Andelyn: "Mom, you said it would only take 30 minutes".
Mom: "I lied, lets take pictures till I run out of space and battery K".

RUBY ROO

This is our sweet little Ruby Roo. A.K.A......Roobs, Roobaloobs, Rubeee Rubee Roooo, Woobee, Boobie, Scruffy, Sugar Butt, Puppy, Puppy Wuupy, Baby, Widdel Wooby Girwl, Fur Face, Fluffy Wuffy. You get the picture I'm sure.
She is a mixed bread of Bichone Frise, Shih Tzu and a tiny bit of something called a Griffon. She only weighs 7.5 lbs so obviously a serious lap dog. She can fix just about anything going wrong in your life with one little snuggle and lick. She acts like we have been gone for days at a time each and every time we come home, even if it's only been a few moments. She has learned to sit, shake, beg, stand, walk on two feet (for a long time) dances, plays dead and stays. She is a fabulous watch dog as she likes to stare out the front window for goings on outside and sounds her bark/howl alarm if anyone gets close to our house. Of course all she would do is lick a robber to death if they ever made their way in our house, so she needs a little work in that area. She has some quirky habits like chewing on a tiny spot of her toys for hours at a time, she thinks she needs to get praised for every single time she goes outside to go potty (which is left over from her potty training days) and sometimes she just goes burzurk running around the house like a greyhound all excited over who knows what??
Ruby's Favorite Things: VISITORS! Sun Spots on the floor, peanut butter, Mommy's lap, sleeping on top of Amelia's bed pillows, open windowed car rides, New toys, water bottles, her bears, tummy rubbings, chicken and lunch meat and the groomers..ha ha.. just kidding.

BALLET UNDER THE STARS

It's tradition! Every year the girls and I attend a free concert given by the professional Arizona Ballet Co. They perform at several outside venues including Peoria, Tempe, Phoenix and Mesa. We always attend the Tempe Town Lake concert. We pack a lunch or pick up Subway and lay out our blankets and chairs. The dancers all come on stage in various styles of dance clothing and warm up for their performance. We are always amazed at their strength, flexibility
and grace. The show only last for 1 hour but it's packed with pieces from the Company performances from the past year and sometimes a sneak peak of what is coming up for the new season.

It's a "green stick" fracture!

Just a few days after school started Amelia was doing a back bend in dance class and landed wrong on her left hand. She went totally white and started crying. We did the usual, some ibuprofen and ice, we bought her a brace for her wrist but 5 days ( includign two school days) later the wrist was swollen and still very sore. Dr. Braun said it was a "green stick fracture" which means, like a thick green branch that has been broken but the outside green bark is still attached. She had to wear the cast for just shy of 8 weeks, which should have been a little less but Dr. Braun was deer hunting the last week and so Amelia had to wear it an extra week. When she finally went back to have the cast removed and checked, it wasn't completely healed and she had a terrible rash. Because the rash was so bad Dr. Braun said he wouldn't recast it but that she needed to wear her brace for the next month and after that when ever she does things that could lend itself to a fall. The rash took about 6 weeks to clear up and the swelling is finally all gone. Whew! We hope to never deal with that again, but are grateful that it wasn't worse. For those of you who have never had a broken bone. Let's just say showering for 8 weeks with your arm in a cast is very interesting!

SCHOOL THINGS AND SUCH

Of course we always do the traditional first day back to school picture. New clothes, backpacks, lunch boxes, $ 60 in pens, pencils, paper, erasers, folders, binders, glue, crayons, protractors, tissues, hand sanitizer and a few more odds n ends. Times have sure changed from the days when mom just bought a couple packs of lined paper and a box of pencils. Taking Amelia shopping for clothing this year was quite interesting. She kept saying to herself "is this what Salena Gomez would wear?" If the answer was yes...she wanted it.
Daddy : "Ammah, here are the keys to your new car, now go outside and see which car you can unlock and that's your car".
Ammah: 'Screaming' "I have a car? I have a car? I have a CAR!"

Amelia later said of the 1st ride around the neighborhood that Ammah screamed for the whole ride.
Ammah was so excited to start Jr. College this year and get her very first car! It's a 2003 Chevy Malabu with not a single "power" anything in it. Yes Ammah, you have to roll the windows up and down with a crank, unlock and lock all the doors by hand and watch out for that tricky gas meter.

Kenzie Jones - The Newest Edition to the Jones Clan

Randy and Krissy added number 5 to their growing brewd. After 4 boys Kenzie is a very welcomed little ball of soft, pink, fluff! Of course I had to have a little photo shoot with her. She looks so serious....wonder what she is thinking about.

SUMMER FADED INTO THE FALL

Last call for a summer sleepover. Sleeping bags, vides games, walkie talkies, pizza and pancakes. What else could anyone ask for on your last weekend before school starts. Brynly and Madelynn are some of Amelia's bestest friends and they had a fantastic last hooray to summer.

A 30 SOMETHING YEAR OLD FRIENDSHIP

I can't believe that I am even old enough to have had a friendship that has lasted more than 30 years. 33 to be exact. Rebecca and I met in Mrs. Hearring Kindergarten class in St. Johns AZ. I remember playing on the swings and playing dress up with Rebecca but we didn't become best friends till around 3rd grade. We were even baptised together! We sang a song from My Turn on Earth called 'Bright Little Light' which I have had all three of my own children sing at their baptisms. Rebecca and I spent our time playing at each others houses, jumping on her trampoline, dressing up for Halloween, going to Merry Miss and mutual together,attending choir, baking and just being very silly. During the summer we rode our bikes down town to the public pool and walked to the drugstore for hot dogs and cokes from the soda fountain, we slept under the stars on her trampoline or on our rollaway bed. We ate tons of Popsicles and even had several food fights, peanuts in my room during a tea party and rotten tomatoes from her family garden. We made a lot of memories in a short amount of time.

This is a picture of our kindergarten class, the year we met. Check out that cheesy grin 2nd from the top left and Rebecca is the 4th one from the top left.

This is a picture my mother took of Rebecca and I when my mom was starting to get into photography. It was taken in the photo studio out back of my house. Check out my humongous glasses. I think we were in 5th grade here.

This picture was taken on a trip to the valley for Legislature. We had never been to a mall together before and went crazy in a photo booth.

I know this picture is tiny... I actually got it off of facebook. One of my friends posted it and I just had to have it. It was taken on our 8th grade graduation commencement evening. That's me in the purple dress. Yes the one that has bare arms and shoulders while all the other girls are right out of the pioneer era LOL. Rebecca is next to me in blue and white. I still have this dress and my girls have played dress ups in it for years.

After 8th grade graduation I moved to Phoenix and only saw Rebecca a few times over the next few summers. This picture was taken during one of those trips.. I think we were around 14 and had been doing chores at Rebecca's house. I had the bright idea to look like maids for some reason. Thus the apron and bandannas.. Check out that vacuum cleaner in the back ground. Somehow we managed to see each other when she came to the valley and we were able to do batisms for the dead, attend girls conference at NAU and even hung out at Sun Splash once. We also wrote a lot of letters to each other. I'm amazed at how we were able to keep our friendship going even though we lived 4 hours away from each other.

After High School Rebecca moved to Safford AZ and met her husband Scott Evans. They married in 89 and started their family. All along the way Rebecca and I have stayed in touch with phone calls on each others birthdays and Christmas cards every year. About 10 years ago we decided to visit Rebecca in Safford and had a wonderful time getting to really know each other again. We have since made 4 trips to stay with them and always have a great time. We have children that are all around the same ages and Rebecca's oldest son and Ammah seemed to have hit it off and have even dated a few times. Rebecca and I have had little (imagine if) conversations about the two of them.. We could be in-laws someday... How cool would that be! No pressure Ammah and Dallin. Wink Wink. Anyway, this picture was taken at our most recent visit over the 4th of July. What an amazing journey in friendship we have had. A little older, a little more filled out (ha ha) but somehow still those same little silly girls from all those years ago. We haven't really changed all that much.